twelve to twenty-two

A lot happens in 10 years.

Around new year's (2010), my Aunt handed back letters that family members had written to themselves at a new year's celebration in 2000. I was apprehensive to open my letter; was I a profound twelve year old, was it going to be embarrassing, how much had I changed?

The letter, written in my poorly scribbled cursive, read:

Yo Al,
Right now im at a 2000 millenium new years party. I'm making an aircraft carrier in lego's. I am twelve years old. When you are reading this you will be 22. Hope you are having fun. With lego's I have humvees, F-14s, a harrier, jeeps, chinook, and working on an aircraft carrier. I hope you made it out of high school and into college.
Love, Alex Hill

I may have been mostly preoccupied with my lego creations at the time, but at least I had some ambitions for my future self: having fun, graduating high school, getting into college. On January 1st, 2010 I had definitely achieved all three. I was spending the new year in New Orleans with my girlfriend, Nichole, of almost a full year, watching the fireworks over the Mississippi River. I had definitely graduated high school and gone on to college. It may have been an uncertain choice as to where I went to college, but ended with a great experience at the end of 4 long years of study at Michigan State University's James Madison College. I unfortunately never completed the lego aircraft carrier and can't look back and remember how amazing that turned out.

Legos seem to have been the most important aspect of my life at twelve. I guess I need to evaluate what that means for my development as a child and 10 years later. I love legos! For as long as I can remember I've been constructing things out of legos, but I was very particular as to how this worked. I was very conscious of color and design. I had a meticulous system of organization for all my lego pieces and enjoyed the creative problem solving that occurred. My lego corner in the basement was my safe haven for all my thoughts and creations to come to life. Legos taught me success and failure, they allowed me to deconstruct, learn by doing, and try again.

So, legos were important, but did my twelve year old self have any idea what was to come next? In just one year I would be thirteen and my entire life would be given purpose and direction. That summer I would meet Fr. Joseph Birungi and found the organization, SCOUT BANANA, the following summer I would travel to Uganda and see the harsh realities of our world at the ripe age of 14. The years that follow after that were just as loaded with significantly life altering experiences, people, and places, but thirteen was the pivotal year from which all of my current life springs.

Its crazy to look back and see that in just one year, my thirteenth year in this world, my life would be impacted beyond my wildest dreams. That year following the beginning of the new millennium would set me on a path taking me across three continents, to 16 different countries, having critical experiences that would lead me to meet hundreds of amazing individuals who would all have a profound impact on how I developed as a person, a friend, and a leader.

A lot happens from twelve to twenty-two. In just two months I'll be turning 23 and I have no idea what the next year will bring. I'm grateful to my twelve year old self, but even more grateful for the people who made it all happen: my parents, grandparents, leaders, mentors, friends, girlfriend, colleagues, trainers, co-workers, randos and strangers - Thanks!

transitions in a land of confusion

I have to say that starting this blog and maintaining it has catalogued some of the better experiences in my short life as well as opened many new and exciting opportunities. And so it is with great pleasure that I am making an effort to renew my writing passion and zeal to write down my experiences and thoughts, perhaps someday to write a book? who knows. . . Is this a new year's resolution of sorts, maybe, but I am not resolving to do anything. Writing is a creative and organic process, so I won't place any restrictions or expectations, just to start writing again when the mood hits me. I used to use writing as a release: from stress, from the insanity of the real world, from my mind's own prison. . .

My writing really took a downward spiral in and after my three-month internship in South Africa. Access to the internet was limited, I continued to journal almost daily, but maintaining this blog was just not possible with the work I was doing. It was a long and difficult summer full of rewarding, but intense experiences. Returning to the states, getting back into the blog only became a burden as I worked to adjust and get back into the swing of life in the US as my last year of college loomed.

That year finally happened with attempts to get back into writing, most were short lived. As I feared the most, I was one class short of graduating! I walked for the ceremony, but thankfully could utilize the summer months to complete an independent study and officially receive a degree. Bachelors of Arts (international relations & global area studies: Africa with a specialization in international development) in hand really started focusing, harder than before, on finding a paying gig in the real world. My plan was to find something that (#1) paid, (#2) was in Michigan, and (#3) didn't make me compromise my morals. My goals were to give back to the great state of Michigan, remain in close proximity to the staff of my fledgling organization, and spend more time with the people I love.

It all happened to work out when I was hired at buildOn, a non-profit organization with the primary goal of building schools in other countries to fight illiteracy and bring education to children all over the world. The organization does this through after school programs at high schools in Michigan's urban hubs (Detroit, Dearborn, Pontiac) where students voluntarily learn about global issues, give back to their own communities through service, and raise money to sponsor schools in Nicaragua, Mali, and Malawi. Since August 5th 2009, I've been working this great opportunity straight out of undergraduate studies that allows me to follow all the criteria I had set for myself.

I now live in Detroit (more to come on that later), own a car, get a big boy salary with benefits, and am still running my own non-profit in my free time, SCOUT BANANA. On top of all of these life developments I will be starting a Masters in Social Justice program this month at Marygrove College in Detroit, two minutes down the road from the house I now live in. They have an incredible history of acting outside the norm, radically focusing on helping people, and pursuing scholarly activism that promotes social justice. I am excited to get started in their 7th Cohort of students!

It has been a time of many transitions. Some easy, some not so easy, but all have been successful with a good dose of confusion, flexibility, and an amazing girlfriend who has made everything much easier! Be on the lookout for some more blog posts to close out my South African experience in the Summer of 2008, some of my non-expert opinions on Detroit, and some more generally interesting thoughts on the coming year. Everyone has predictions, so why not throw some more out there? I will also be headed to remote Nicaragua in early February with a group of buildOn students to build a school, so there is definitely some great experiences to come!

global health is everyone's responsibility

People young and old across the US have connected with seven different communities across the African continent to support locally initiated health projects. Using the vibrant color of bananas and the enthusiasm of youth, a new nonprofit has grown to support the coming revolution in African health care.

It all began with one individual, Fr. Joseph Birungi, who had the dream of providing access to basic health care in a remote area where he worked. His dream was transferred on to me through his stories of those who died because they did not have access to basic health care. At the time I was a 14 year-old who knew little of the world beyond Michigan's borders, but I was inspired to do something. Just entering high school, I was full of naive optimism with a goal to figure out how I could make an impact in the world. Although I was youthful, naive, and optimistic I had an incredible mentor, my mother. She helped me form basic assumptions that laid the foundation for my understanding of "global health as everyone's responsibility. "

One assumption that grew from my optimism was the belief that everyone had the potential to make a difference in the world. From Fr. Joseph to myself to my mother, the chain of individuals who embodied this grew to include hundreds of families, church congregations, school assemblies, and individuals from across the country working to fund an ambulance. These individuals, linked by a common cause, were able to raise over $67,000 in less than three months for the health center in Uganda.
It is easy for many people to take for granted the small things: clean water from a sink, medicine readily available in your cabinet, adequate food sources, etc. In the summer of 2002, I was able to traveled to Uganda. During my one-month stay I met and lived with the people who would benefit from the ambulance project. The people I met were so friendly and, even in their poverty, they wanted to share what little they had. I have seen that all people of the world share the same needs and wants. Everyone needs food, shelter, clean water, and necessary health care. We all want to know happiness, health and love. Parents everywhere want the best for their children and children want to learn and grow. But not everyone gets the same chance for success. And so keeping in mind the interdependent and similar nature of our world it is not so difficult to see "global health as everyone’s responsibility."

As I graduated from high school with my classmates so did SCOUT BANANA. My friends began expanding our work into Chapters at colleges and universities across the US and Canada. This allowed our outreach to grow along with our ability to support more local projects. We became seriously focused on community-based solutions and empowering young people in the US to take responsible action when "making a difference" in Africa. Just because you have the means to do something doesn't necessarily mean that you should. With an expanding support base and the desire to empower young people and community leaders we decided to pursue 501c3 status in order to better serve as a resource. Utilizing privilege in the US to connect communities in Africa with inspired students, SCOUT BANANA has been able to raise almost $200,000 to date and engage over 50,000 young people in partnering with African projects to provide access to basic health care.


SCOUT BANANA believes that global health is everyone's responsibility and that everyone has the potential to make a difference. We look at global health issues systematically and our solutions are focused on revolutionizing structures as well as shifting paradigms of development thinking in regards to education, power, and privilege. We seek to create lasting social change in African health care and believe that solutions come directly from communities in need. SCOUT BANANA is dedicated to empowering community solutions as well as young people who want to responsibly make a difference in Africa. By connecting communities in long-term cooperative partnerships, we will build a movement dedicated to fundamental social change in which global health is everyone’s responsibility and every individual’s human right.

SCOUT BANANA is a nonprofit organization that works to provide access to basic health care in Africa. Focusing on community-based solutions and empowering community leaders as well as young people who want to make a difference in Africa, SCOUT BANANA is supporting the innovation in African health care. The organization connects student Chapters with local health project in Africa.

Learn more about the Chapter network & apply to launch a Chapter at your school HERE!

Written for Change.org's Global Health Blog.

global health is everyone's responsibility and human right

From the UN Declaration to Amnesty International, between Paul Farmer and William Easterly it seems that everyone has a different understanding of what constitutes a basic human right and the cause of its absence. Michael Keizner has been building the discussion on health and human rights on Change.org's Global Health blog while NYU Professor, William Easterly has recently entered the debate as a response to Amnesty International's position on poverty related to human rights. This fueled a response from Amnesty International, which stated that Easterly was "pretty off base." Easterly followed his Amnesty International response with an end to his "human rights trilogy" by asking Paul Farmer who should be held responsible for satisfying the right to health care?

The World Health Organization (WHO) states health as a human right as:

"the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being..."

It seems that Easterly's human rights criteria is trapped in an old international law paradigm where there must be someone at fault or someone to blame. He also forgets that health is directly linked to food. You cannot have good health and not have food. Effective aid, not seen in today's aid schemes, based in sustainable practices (not just buzzword reporting) that supports an individual's right to develop themselves should look comprehensively towards the needs of a community of individuals. The ideas of human rights, foreign aid, and development should be less focused on international systems and more focused on building strong communities that meet their own human needs: health care, food, water, etc.

Within this debate of health and human rights, where does SCOUT BANANA fit. As an organization that makes and stands behind the statement that:

"global health is everyone's responsibility and every individual's human right"

Paul Farmer has the right idea, as Easterly quotes from his Tanner Lecture in 2005:

"only a social movement involving millions, most of us living far from these difficult settings, could allow us to change the course of history….troves of attention are required to reconfigure existing arrangements if we are to slow the steady movement of resources from poor to rich—transfers that have always been associated… with violence and epidemic disease… whether or not we can say “never again” with any conviction—will depend on our collective courage to examine and understand the roots of modern violence and the violation of a broad array of rights, including social and economic rights"

This is exactly similar to SCOUT BANANA's understanding of health as a human right and a responsibility. It is a right where we do not attempt to place blame or hold the past accountable because those become frivolous exercises that produce no results. When we delve deeper into the root causes of issues, for example the driving forces of slavery, we must focus on a responsibility to not repeat the past and make ourselves accountable in the future.

There is no way that the entire European population and its descendants can be held accountable for the evils of the slave trade. While the same ideas of human rights did not exist in the time period of slavery, it is similarly difficult to place blame on systems (and populations) that drive the causes of poverty and lack of access to health care. Many people that I work with on development projects feel guilty that they are so privileged and wealthy compared to the communities that they work with that are so poor. SCOUT BANANA teaches its members to not feel guilty, but instead to feel responsible. Understanding personal privilege related to the oppression of certain populations within societal structures can assist in creating positive impacts. Human rights don't necessarily have to be about placing blame, but rather developing an understanding of responsibility.

So Professor Easterly when you ask who is responsible for satisfying human rights: it is you, it is me, it is all those who dream of making a difference, and it is also those who lack the very human rights that we hold dear. Placing blame is not a concrete step forward, learning from history and recognizing where our privilege fits can be a first step towards effective actions. I too see Paul Farmer's vision of a movement of millions, near and far, taking actions to shape a better future where human rights are everyone's responsibility and every individual's human right.

From the Article 25 of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights:

"Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control."

 Written for the SCOUT BANANA blog.

the week in african health

More:
A Tale of Two Refrigerators
Fighting has renewed in southern Sudan, but its not just between militant groups - aid groups fall victim to needless fighting as well. Diane Bennet writes on William Easterly’s Aid Watch blog about the 2001 peace in Sudan and how it was a ripe time to treat disease and build health infrastructure. Unfortunately internal bureaucracy and politics became the largest hurdle.

Sudan: Darfur - Thousands Flee to African Union Safety
More recently, South Darfur has become the seen of violent clashes between government forces and militants. It is important to never forget the impacts that conflict has on health services.

Africa: Public Health Care Must Lead

Oxfam International has released a report [access here] “challenging the myths about private health care in developing countries.” The report emphasizes the role that private health care can play in developing countries, but reminds us that there is no way a scale-up of private health services will reach poor people in need. Key recommendations are to increase funding for free universal health care infrastructure, rejecting ineffective practices of the past, and combining efforts to fuel effective initiatives - sounds a lot like SCOUT BANANA

Global Health: Mobile Phones to Boost Healthcare

Revolutionizing access to health knowledge, the efforts of the Mobile Health Alliance (mHealth), supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the UN Foundation, and Vodafone Foundation are making a mark across the African continent boasting 51 existing or to-be-implemented programs in 26 countries around the world. Harnessing the potential of growing technology in ‘developing’ countries for the purpose of health can only signal a major shift in access to health care across Africa.

Getting the Continent on Obama’s Agenda

It appears that Obama’s administration is stacked in the favor of Africa and in favor of better international development practices all around. With Susan Rice serving as Ambassador to the UN action against genocide may be bolstered, Gayle Smith more likely than not will be tapped as USAID Director, she was a major proponent of the HELP Commission creating a cabinet level position for foreign aid, and a well known name among insiders and outsiders in African affairs, Johnnie Carson, is expected to be named head of the Bureau of African Affairs of the State Department. The future of US relations in Africa has incredible potential and hope to change.

Zimbabwe: Staff Return to Hospitals, But Not to Work

As a massive cholera outbreak tears across the country, medical staff have returned to their posts, but the nature of their strike, that began in 2008 over poor working conditions and wages, is now “more like a sit-in.” In a country so crippled by Western exploitation and resulting politics, a strike of the health workers in the face of a rampant disease outbreak does not bode well for a vulnerable population.
More:
Too Much Cholera, Too Little Food
Over 80,000 Zimbabweans Infected with Cholera

Africa: U.S. Naval Engagement Offers Health Dividends

Imagine the potential of the US’ military might if it was dedicated to coordinating naval and health care workers from 13 countries to bring aid and health services to communities in need. This becomes a reality with the African Partnership Station Initiative and Project Handclasp. I can only dream of a day where initiatives like this are more a norm than a surprising gesture of good will.

Mali: Raising Money and Hygiene Standards

One of the most innovative programs that I have read most recently is the work the Dutch based Gender and Water Alliance which is employing women to make soap as well educate and use it to increase hygiene and combat preventable diseases. Health benefits, a source of income and empowering women!

Food Crisis Over, Say Experts

Supposedly the global food crisis of last year is over! Agricultural experts from Africa and Asia are saying that we are no longer in a food crisis and that there needs to be an increased production of rice in Africa in order to keep the food crisis at bay. In my opinion, as long as we continue our unsustainable and capitalist practices that commodify a basic human need, we will remain in a global food crisis affecting both the US and Africa.
More:
Rwanda: Food Production Up, Thanks to Green Revolution
Thankfully the increase is not due to the ‘Green Revolution,’ but instead to increase in practices that are focused on protecting the environment.

South Africa: Treasury Blamed for Shortage in Aids Drugs

Years of controversy seem to have brought the blame down on the South African Treasury. With an extensive bureaucracy, it is no wonder that the ARV roll-out program has taken much longer than it should - as many die without the proper medications. While the numbers of people enrolled in the ARV program has increased significantly there still exists a problematic policy of access. Access hinges on wealth, CD4 count, and location. To access the government’s ARV program your CD4 count has to be less than 300, which is at a point where you are already very vulnerable. This creates an issue of sustained treatment because it forces an irregular regimen. If your CD4 count is above 300, you will have to pay. Many cannot pay and if you live far from a government hospital access is just that much more difficult because of taxi fare and time sacrificed for travel. It seems the health and wellbeing of its citizens is not a high budget priority of the South African government.
More:
Rapid HIV evolution avoids attacks
Much like the flu virus, HIV mutates and evolves in response to treatments. This really exposes the South African ARV program as highly ineffective.
Duncan discusses HIV/AIDS in Morocco
Little known to the world, the HIV/AIDS crisis grows in Morocco.

Originally posted on the SCOUT BANANA blog. 

Call for Papers

SCOUT BANANA, in conjunction with Michigan State University's African Studies Center and Office of International Development, invites you to submit a manuscript to Articulate: Undergraduate Research Applied to International Development.

Articulate is an undergraduate journal that publishes academic papers and writings (research papers, field work, interviews, etc.) on issues in international development, focusing primarily on African studies and health care issues. Our journal focuses on relationships between development, health care, and the African continent. Articulate is a forum for students to contribute to, as well as make, the debates in international development. Undergraduate students remain a vital, untapped force that can bring new ideas, perspectives, and concepts into the development dialogue. Our goal is to spark, share, and spread knowledge to create innovative change now.

Articulate is peer-reviewed by fellow undergraduate students and an appointed editorial board. Publication is based on relevance, quality, and originality. We ask for submissions that are 10-15 pages long and formatted in the Chicago Manual of Style with 200-word abstracts. In addition, we ask that the author's name, major, college, and university appear on a separate cover sheet, with no reference to the author within the manuscript.

Potential topics, include, but are not limited to:
The effectiveness of foreign aid, microfinance, and social enterprise in Africa
Intersections of gender, religion, ethnicity, and sexuality in African development
Ethics and development in African countries
Historical analyses and case studies of health care programs in Africa
Politics of water and medicine in Africa
The role of African youth in development programs and projects
Effects of conflict and forced migration on health care and development

In addition, Articulate is also seeking brief reflective essays on young peoples' experiences in Africa. Ideally, these pieces are 2-3 single-spaced pages and can take a variety of creative forms. These essays should explore how development work is from the perspective of a young person from the Global North, entering the Global South. Is it how you thought it would be? What did you enjoy and hate about it? What do you wish you'd known when you were just 'studying' as opposed to working in Africa on health-related issues? Other themes may be considered with consultation from the Editor-in-Chief.

Papers will be accepted until March 15th, 2009 with an intended publication date during Spring 2009. For submissions, please contact the Editor-in-Chief at articulate@scoutbanana.org. For more information on SCOUT BANANA, check out www.scoutbanana.org.

Not an undergraduate student? Paper too long? Still want to get your ideas published as a volunteer or researcher in the field? Inquire at: banana@scoutbanana.org.

Are you an undergraduate looking to be a larger part of SCOUT BANANA? Can you peer review articles extremely well and motivate others to do the same? Apply for the Editor-in-Chief position, contact: alex.h@scoutbanana.org

Student Organization Goes Nonprofit to Benefit Health in Africa

NEWS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
16 January 2009

STUDENT ORGANIZATION GOES NONPROFIT TO BENEFIT HEALTH IN AFRICA

East Lansing - To suggest that college students armed with bananas could create anything wholesome and family-friendly may raise a few eyebrows.

But to suggest that college students and bananas are the backbone of a dynamic, progressive organization that has raised more than $150,000 to date and inspired countless people to improve basic health care in Africa? That may raise more eyebrows.

Eight years ago, Alex Hill was going door-to-door to raise funds for a health center in Uganda. Today, along with an army of colleagues sporting banana-yellow shirts, his organization, SCOUT BANANA, has become an official nonprofit that supports 10 health care projects in 10 countries within Africa.

With its new status, SCOUT BANANA has a new education program in the works that will create curriculum that increases knowledge and awareness about the African continent. The program includes an interactive education website, curriculum and resources for elementary and high school classrooms, and an internship program for university students to participate in on-the-ground health care projects.

Current programs of SCOUT BANANA are thriving and growing, including the new academic journal, Articulate: Undergraduate Scholarship Applied to International Development. SCOUT BANANA continues to serve as a hub that brings together communities, academics, activists, community leaders and young people to ensure that global health is everyone’s responsibility and every individual’s human right.

SCOUT BANANA started in 2001 as a project that delivered an ambulance to the St. Ambrose Health Center in Uganda by raising over $67,000 through the support of hundreds of families and over 60 community organizations. SCOUT BANANA, which stands for Serving Citizens of Uganda Today Because Africa Needs A New Ambulance, became the acronym of Hill’s Boy Scout project.

SCOUT BANANA will spend its next phase building a youth movement of individuals who will are compassionate, competent, and collaborative agents of change. "It's not just about donations anymore," states Monica Mukerjee, a staff member of the organization. "It's about research, collaboration, and bringing Africa to the forefront. By inspiring others to be dedicated to Africa, SCOUT BANANA is fueling long-term change and growth in health care and development."

The organization invites all supporters, interested public, and close friends to their Nonprofit Launch Party on 21 February 2009 at the Gone Wired Cafe (6pm) for music, food, fun, and to celebrate the launch of the nonprofit!

To learn more or make a donation, visit www.scoutbanana.org. For additional information, contact the Executive Director, Alex Hill, at alex.h@scoutbanana.org or (810) 516-6547.

XXX

Articulate Call for Papers (Fall 2008)

Call for Papers:

SCOUT BANANA, in conjunction with Michigan State University's African Studies Center and Office of International Development, invites you to submit a manuscript to Articulate: Undergraduate Scholarship Applied to International Development.

Articulate is a new undergraduate scholarly journal that publishes academic papers and writings (research papers, field work, interviews, etc.) on issues in international development, focusing primarily on African studies and healthcare issues. Articulate seeks to educate, motivate, and activate the public about its mission and vision working towards solutions for Africa's healthcare crisis.

Our journal focuses on relationships between development, foreign aid, health care and Africa. Articulate is a forum for students to contribute to, as well as make, the debates in international development. Undergraduate students remain a vital, untapped force that can bring new ideas, perspectives, and concepts into the development dialogue. Our goal is to spark, share, and spread knowledge to create innovative change now.

Articulate is peer-reviewed by an editorial committee consisting of undergraduate students. Editorial decisions are based on relevance, quality, and originality. We ask for submissions that are roughly 10-15 pages long and formatted in the Chicago Manual of Style. In addition, we ask that the author's name, major, college, and university appear on a separate cover sheet, with no reference to the author within the manuscript.

Potential topics, include, but are not limited to:
The effectiveness of foreign aid
Intersections of gender, ethnicity, and sexuality in African development
Comparative studies of healthcare systems
Ethics and development in African countries
Land rights reform/redistribution as a development policy
Historical analyses of development programs in Africa
Politics of water in Africa
The role of African youth in development programs and projects
Effects of conflict and forced migration on healthcare and development

Papers will be accepted on a rolling deadline until September 15th with an intended publication date of November 2008. For submissions or more information, please contact the Editor-in-Chief at articulate@scoutbanana.org. For more information on SCOUT BANANA, check out www.scoutbanana.org

Not an undergraduate student? Paper too long? Still want to get your ideas published as a volunteer or researcher in the field? Inquire at: banana@scoutbanan.org